By Joseph Goral
Staff Writer
jgoral@mihomepaper.com
OXFORD — The Oxford High School varsity girls basketball team lost to Clarkston High School, 47-27, on Friday.
The Wildcats are now 7-14 with one game remaining in the regular season.
Friday was also senior night. Before the game, Wildcat seniors Emma Beggs, Sophia Raab, Nina Kratt, Vivian Cruz, Brynley Cardona, Allison Hufstedler and Teagen Lepping were honored.
Hana St. Juliana was also honored for what would have been her senior year. St. Juliana played for the school’s volleyball, basketball and lacrosse teams. St. Juliana was 14-years-old when she, Tate Myre, Madisyn Baldwin and Justin Shilling were shot and killed by a fellow student at Oxford high School on Nov. 30, 2021.
Beggs and sophomore Katelyn Brockway led the Wildcats in scoring with six points, followed by four from Hufstedler and sophomore Mia Champagne, three from Lepping, two by Raab, and one point from Cardona and junior Camryn Quidort.
Oxford kept the game close through the first quarter thanks to three-point field goals from Beggs and Brockway and a free throw by Cardona. Oxford trailed Clarkston by just two points after the first quarter, but a 20-5 Clarkston run over the next eight minutes put the Wolves ahead 29-12 at halftime.
Oxford scored the first points of the second half when a pass from Champagne set up Raab on the post for a layup. Hufstedler made a close shot while falling a few minutes later to give the Wildcats 19 points. Foul trouble put Clarkston at the free throw line regardless whether a Wolf was fouled in the act of shooting.
Oxford trailed Clarkston by 16 to start the fourth quarter and lost the game by 20.
The Wildcats’ first Districts game will be held at Swartz Creek High School, 1 Dragon Dr., at 7 p.m. on March 5.